The purpose of this application is to create a multidisciplinary, cross-departmental research group to study basic problems related to control of activity in the nervous system. The research will center on regulatory mechanisms affecting nerve endings, synapses and reflex arcs. The studies will encompass normal and abnormal nerve endings and normal and abnormal reflex pathways. The methods used will be those of the pharmacologist, neurophysiologist, morphologist, neurochemist and clinical investigator. Research will be done on both animals and man. The results will bear on many disorders of the nervous system but included directly in the program are studies on myasthenia gravis, muscular dystrophy, muscle spastic states, anticonvulsants and neurogenic cardiac arrhythmias. The research is intended to provide better understanding of the events underlying these disorders and to lead to better drug therapy for them.